The Oscar race for Best Actor is wide open: that’s all that Pete Hammond (Deadline Hollywood), Anne Thompson (Indiewire) and I can agree upon in our predictions battle. Watch above or listen to the audio podcast version below.

It’s not like last year when Gary Oldman (“Darkest Hour”) was out front early on and all smart Oscarologists knew he could stay there, if only he could stave off a slowly rising threat from Timothee Chalamet (“Call Me By Your Name”). And we knew that Oldman would do so. This year, as Pete, Anne and I note: there are a lot of strong rivals, including early faves Bradley Cooper (“A Star Is Born”), Ryan Gosling (“First Man”) and Willem Dafoe (“At Eternity’s Gate”) plus new surging ponies Viggo Mortensen (“Green Book”) and Christian Bale (“Vice”).